Geography Fair Prep

We finished up Africa on Monday. Then, we spent the rest of the week preparing for our home school support group's Geography Fair. Rabbit is doing The Netherlands. We contribute to a missionary who lives and works in Amsterdam, so that's part of the reason she chose it. The Fair is this coming Tuesday, so we'll practice at least twice before the fair. She is very excited, because her dad will take off work to come listen, and her grandparents are coming to see it, too.

We have kept working in math, and finished lesson 16, and moved on to 17. This week Mr. Demme added teaching the kids to multiply numbers like 30 x 2, or 60 x 3. Rabbit really liked doing this and tried several problems. She really wasn't as keen on skip counting by 7.

We have done Sequential Spelling every day, too. I think it is going well for her, and I'm starting to see it carry over into her writing. We've been doing 2 lessons a day, still.

We did our writing without curriculum this week. She wrote two excellent sentences one day. Not too wordy, on topic, and she didn't say "Look at the..." at the beginning. She has really worked hard at her writing this week, and earned 34 points! I think she may be ready for more structure, but maybe we'll just wait until next year.

We've also kept up on reading. Some days we have done more than others in this area, depending on the story we've been reading. For example, Friday was the Ugly Duckling, but we had put in our 4 hours, so we only did about 10 minutes worth - which was half the story.

I'm really looking forward to getting back into our "regular" ECC week.

Not keeping up...

Sorry I haven't been keeping up. Life has been busy this year. The kids keep getting sick, and I'm busy with real life - birthday parties of friends' kids, cleaning weekly for Life Group, etc.

Just some updates...

ECC is going great. We're not getting in Nature Walks because of how cold it is, but I'm not worried about it. We also don't get in all the art projects, but that's fine, we'll do them when we can. We should finish up Africa next Monday.

In math, Rabbit has surprised me by learning her x4 math facts, and doing just fine with them. So that's going well right now.

English has been tougher the last couple of weeks. Rabbit hates writing, and dictation has been the assignment for the last 2 weeks. We got through it, but it was painful.

We switched to Sequential Spelling about two weeks ago. Boring, but effective. I'm seeing it carry over to some of her writing. We're doing 2 sessions a day - 50 words a day! - to try to "catch-up" and finish book 1 before we head to book 2.

David Livingstone has been our missionary while we study Africa. It is interesting to read about his struggles.

Anyway, life got in the way of blogging. I'll try to do week-in-review summaries at least.

Week 19, Day 2 in ECC

Today, I managed to keep us on task, and in spite of the work load, we got it done.

We started Bible time a little earlier than usual, and worked through Rabbit's Awana verses. Then we did our 1 minute of cross crawls. It is really cute when Tigger joins in. He will do 4 or 5 correctly and then get "off," and have to stop and think before he gets back on track. But, he is doing them by himself. After that, we did ECC's Bible time. We read about Samuel Morris. It was amazing to think that God spoke to him audibly. Then it was time for the dictation of the memory verse. Rabbit really fussed about doing it, and it seemed to take forever.

After that, we did ear eights - just Rabbit and I, and then moved on to Geography. We read about the "nature" of Africa - animals and climates. Then we played the Geography Game. Just Africa today. I think I know where most of the countries are now. I help Rabbit by playing "warmer/colder" with her. We did our lunges, and then moved on to science. We read about how different animals survive when there is no place to hide, like in the grasslands.

We were doing good at this point, time-wise. So, we moved on to snack time and Spanish. While Rabbit was eating her snack and listening to the Spanish CD, I put together our crockpot meal. I gave Rabbit a 15 minute break, since we were ahead. After the break, we did lesson 3 of Sequential Spelling. She is starting to get it, but I think it might take a week or two before it fully sinks in.

Rabbit had to finish her science page, do on-line math drill, and work on an Awana page for seatwork. The boys and I read Ndito Runs. Tigger got a kick out of the name "Ndito." Then we worked on our verse, "... love your neighbor as yourself." Of course, Pooh said he only needed to say it once. We did calendar time, and worked on our days of the week and months of the year. Then, we practiced our phone number and worked on learning our address. After that we played games with the "Fit-a-Space" toy from My Father's World. First I had them string matching colors on the string. Then, I had them fill in the circles with the shapes, naming the shapes as they went. Next we worked on patterns - like red, green, red, green, what comes next? We did several of those going up to 4 colors. Then, I layed out 3 of one shape, but in different colors. I had them cover their eyes, and I removed one shape. I asked them which color was missing. We did that a couple of times. And finally, I placed them in a certain order (like, white, orange, blue), had them cover their eyes, and I mixed them up and when they opened their eyes they had to put them in the right order. They had lots of fun with that today.

Now it was time for writing eights. I let Rabbit just do it with her finger. But, I had to keep reminding her to go slower. Then, we continued on lesson 122 in English. We just did the next paragraph (one sentence) in the dictation. Tomorrow we will finish up. We had enough time before lunch at that point to play Mancala for 10 minutes. We got in two games. We tied the second. While I made lunch, Rabbit read books from the book basket, and worked on her Awana page.

After lunch, we read the next chapter in David Livingstone. Then, the boys had quiet time. We did another page in math. When I came down, she only had about 4 or 5 problems done, so I started working them on the whiteboard with her. She really liked that, and wanted to pretend there was a whole class with her. It seems to help her when she hears the problems talked out loud. We did Lesson 5 from Sequential Spelling next. She is starting to get it, and has no problems "fixing" her own mistakes. Again, she wanted to pretend there was a whole class with her.

After this, we did reading time. The stories were rather short today, so we read 3 of them. Then, we worked on "Scoring High." She did fine with it - it only took us about 5 minutes, to my surprise. After that, we picked an art project. I had her pick one of the easier ones. I told her I would make sure I had everything ready for next week for one of the other ones she really wants to do..

Me staying on task and getting us started on time was a big help to keeping our day running smoothly. It feels good that I was disciplined, and now I'll have time to do the other commitments I need to do today.

Week 19, Day 1 in ECC

They day started with the usual Awana review. There is only one new verse for Rabbit to memorize this week, the rest is review. But, she has two activities that she needs to do. The first is to do something kind to someone she doesn't know that well. That is difficult, because we're not sure what we can do for the neighbors we don't know. The other section she needs to wait to do until we hear back from the missionary we suport in the Netherlands.

Then we read in Window on the World about another people group in Africa. They lead a hard life. This particular group was once very nomadic, and now are basically confined to refugee camps.

In geography we read in our atlas about the people and places in Africa, and learned how to play Mancala. Rabbit really enjoyed that. For science, it was about predators and scavangers in the grasslands. The pictures are graphic, and Rabbit thought they were gross. I didn't make her write or draw anything as she was pretty emotional about them.

Then we did snack time and Spanish. The story we are learning is now completely in Spanish. It is much harder to follow. Then I gave her a 15 minute break. (She found Black Beauty at the library last week and has been reading it.)

She worked on copying the memory verse and doing math drill on the computer while I did preschool with the boys. We read their Cubbies book and worked on their verse. Then we read another book from the book basket. Next, we did calendar time. Pooh was so glad we were putting a 1 in the first Sunday on the calendar. Now, I'm starting them memorizing their address, and reviewing their phone number. Finally, we got out the number pegs and worked on those.

Rabbit and I then worked on writing eights and English. The English assignment is dictation, which she really doesn't like. I told her we would take 3 days to do it, one paragraph at a time. The point of this dictation is to practice using quotation marks. Then, we did the first lesson in our new spelling book: Sequential Spelling. It only had 4 words. It is different, based on patterns. After that she did book basket while I made lunch.

After lunch, I read the next chapter of David Livingstone. After getting the boys down, we proceded onto math. Rabbit definitely has the skip counting by fours. Remembering her math facts is another story. I made a "Multiplication Bingo" game last week - it has the answers on the card, and then I show her a flashcard and she is suppose to call out the answer and put a penny on the answer. She'll get there, it just seems slow. We did the 2nd lesson in Sequential Spelling. She did fine. It is very easy right now. We're going to aim for 2 lessons a day to see if we can finish book 1 by the end of the school year. We're suppose to do them at least 2 hours apart, so that means one in the morning and one after lunch. Finally, we finished up reading and music. We actually did the last story in our new reading book first. On Friday we browsed through the Table of Contents and Rabbit saw that "Pocohontus" was one of the stories. She really wanted to read that first. So we read about half of it on Friday and the rest today. Now, we'll go back to the beginning of the book.

It was kind of funny, because she asked if she would have to read "Pocohontus" again, and I told her she wouldn't since she read it once.

Whew. Mondays always seem like our busiest day!

Week 18, Day 5 in ECC

I like having light and independent Fridays. It's good for mom as well as the student.

After doing Awana verses and ECC Bible time, Rabbit went right to work on her vocabulary word. We only had one this week, so that made it easier.

Next we did spelling. But, she did worse than yesterday. Ahh. Poor kid. She missed "goes" as "gose" and "oh" as "ho" again. She almost missed "cold" as "clod," but caught it.

We did snack and Spanish time. There was a quiz, which she aced this time. It was worth really reviewing the story a lot this week.

She worked on math while I spent time with the boys working on their verse and such. They really like having that time. I read one of our book basket books to them. They really like that.

Then we did repatterning, and Rabbit did one more "writing" assignment. She really likes writing about what she sees.

After lunch, I realized we forgot to read David Livingstone yesterday, so I got caught up today. And that was it. I really like being able to take it a little easier on Fridays.

Week 18, Day 4 in ECC

We started our day with the usual. Awana verses, and then ECC's Bible time. More amazing information on missionaries from the past.

For Geography, we colored the Kenya flag. Each of the kids wanted to, so it's a good thing I made extra copies. Rabbit, on her own, wrote some facts on the back. Her spelling left much to be desired, but at least she remembered that part of the work.

In Science, we read about grassland plant eaters, and then did some an experiment in the manual. Again, all three kids wanted to try it out - it was about how water helps keep animals cooler.

We did snack, Spanish and then a short recess. Then Rabbit had some seatwork, in the form of practicing math facts. The boys worked on their Awana verses, calendar time, and days of the week. Pooh was quite excited that we were getting close to filling up the calendar. Also, I came up with way to try to help the boys remember the days of the week. On Sunday, I drew a sun. On Monday, I drew a moon. On Wednesday, I drew wedding bells. (If someone has a better idea on how to remember the "wed" that starts Wednesday, I'd like to hear it.) On Thursday, I drew a glass of water with a straw, because when you get "thirsty" you need a drink. For Friday, I drew a frying pan. On Saturday I drew a chair that we "sat down in because we're tired at the end of the week."

After this, it was time for writing eights. Then we had our weekly writing assignement. She wrote three sentences, but they really should have been two. Rabbit is finally remembering to capitalize at the beginning, and put a period at the end of a sentence. I'm about to owe her a dollar. She did book basket while I worked on lunch.

After lunch, we did spelling, and only missed one word. She spelled "oh" as "ho." Then math was next. I think she finally has skip counting by fours down pretty well. After that reading and music, and the day was done!